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The systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion
The anonymous author of the Big Think Neurobonkers blog has published a wee reply to my recent posts arguing that NSA leaker Edward Snowden should be prosecuted: To act on one’s conscience and leak information that is believed to be in the public interest is a noble choice. The ...
The Taiwanese version of the Onion (sort of) has put out a new video mocking President Obama's hypocrisy regarding NSA surveillance. The US has long criticized China for being a surveillance state and locking up its own citizens for opposing government policies. But 2013 has revealed a ...
What's the Latest Development? Since 2005, designers at Carnegie Mellon University have been refining a surveillance system that is capable of tracking over a dozen individuals simultaneously -- just like the Marauders' Map described in the Harry Potter books. The multi-camera setup was ...
Yes, the kitten with four eyes, two noses and two mouths is real. She was born on Tuesday and answers to, cue the pun, “Deucy.” What does Deucy have to do with Edward Snowden, aside from their adorable whiskers? A lot. I could explain, but Hobbes does such a better job. Arguing for entrusting ...
What's the Latest Development? On Monday, days after it was revealed that the US government was amassing millions of telecommunications and Internet data records, a Pew Research Center/Washington Post poll of just over 1,000 adults showed that a majority are fine with the government's actions if ...
What's the Latest Development? One of the many cyberwarfare projects coming out of the US government carries the intriguing title "Plan X." DARPA has already spent over $5 million on preliminary studies involving some of the country's best-known game developers and special effects houses, and ...
What's the Latest Development? This week iRobot, the maker of the military PackBot robot, announced that it had secured multimillion-dollar contracts with the organizers of next year's World Cup, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro and 12 nearby host cities in Brazil. Alongside thousands of ...
I won't propose an answer to this hugely complex question today. Instead, I want to point out some striking similarities between the American perspective on the conflict in Chechnya a decade ago and the run-up to the Obama administration’s pending decision on how to handle the Assad regime’s ...
What's the Latest Development? Videos released Thursday that clearly showed two men suspected of carrying out Monday's Boston Marathon bombing -- one of whom is on the run as of this posting -- are, according to writer Farhad Manjoo, "a sign of the virtues of video surveillance." He argues that ...
Now that the two suspects Monday’s horrific bombing have been identified, attention turns to their motive. Why would two brothers originally from the troubled region of Chechnya, a republic of Russia, detonate bombs in Boston on Patriot's Day? Here is a very raw, very quick, very preliminary ...
He billed his first presidential visit to Israel as a listening tour, but it turns out Barack Obama is doing quite a bit of speaking as well. On his first day in the Holy Land, the president was all about the love: I know that in stepping foot on this land, I walk with you on the historic ...
The student center at Brooklyn College will be abuzz Thursday evening at 6:30 when two speakers propose boycotting, divesting and applying sanctions on Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians. The run-up to the panel discussion has ignited a huge flap between supporters and opponents of Israel ...
Last week, Praxis guest blogger Zane Friedkin drew on principles of Kantian ethics to build a case against the Obama administration’s drone campaign in the Middle East and North Africa. I agree that Kant can help guide the debate, and I too have serious misgivings about the recent escalation of ...
In his recent post, fellow Big Think blogger Adam Lee blames the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict on competing religious fundamentalisms. The recent renewal of fighting on the Gaza border, he writes, is being inflamed and prolonged by religious zealotry on both sides. Whether it's ...
As you've no doubt already heard, American embassies throughout the Middle East have been attacked by violent mobs in the last few days, ostensibly due to outrage over a YouTube video called "Innocence of Muslims" that lampoons the Prophet Mohammed as a blundering, deceitful fraud. At least one of ...